How feasible is Yobe’s prenuptial HIV/AIDS test?

To achieve this, the husband and wife to-be must attend designated HIV/AIDS screening centres across the state even as authorities are stressing that any result obtained from any other centre will not be approved. The decision, according to sources, was to address a negative trend because some dubious people who have tested positive and still […]

To achieve this, the husband and wife to-be must attend designated HIV/AIDS screening centres across the state even as authorities are stressing that any result obtained from any other centre will not be approved.

The decision, according to sources, was to address a negative trend because some dubious people who have tested positive and still want to marry or take additional wives have devised means of finding their way by conniving with laboratory technicians to get fresh result which will show that they are HIV/AIDS negative at a very high price.

This tendency according to our findings has so far subjected many families to emotional and psychological distress.

Our correspondent learnt that with that dubious attitude, many innocent girls who got married into such polygamous families have tested positive after undergoing voluntary screening or due to recurrent sickness.

Officials at the Sani Abacha Specialists Hospital have however refuted the allegation, insisting that there are stringent measures in place which ensures that only the correct results are issued to anyone who goes for screening.

But in Potiskum Local Government area for instance, it was confided in our reporter that after subjecting some married women to the screening, many of them were found to be HIV/AIDS positive. “The irony is that most of them were proved to be virtuous without any record of extra-marital affairs,” the source said.

The source said because of ignorance and poverty, young girls were being given out for marriage to wealthy individuals even if it was confirmed that such suitors have tested positive to the dreaded ailment.

Already, the state government had in 2007 constructed three HIV/AIDS screening centres in Gashua, Potiskum and Damaturu towns.

Sunday Trust reports that the move to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS through pre-nuptial tests this time around is the creation of the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

Happily, based on the 2008 survey released by National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA )and other international partners, Yobe State has the least prevalence of HIV and AIDS when compared with other states in Nigeria.   

In 2005 for instance, HIV prevalence among pregnant women in the state was put at three percent and observers are of the opinion that the new measure initiated by the Ministry of Religious Affairs will further deplete the trend.

Alhaji Habu Dauda Gulani, the commissioner of  the ministry said the decision was taken in good faith and not meant to expose or subject anybody to ridicule, stressing that many of the patients only found themselves in the predicament by accident not through promiscuity.

“We feel this is the time to act because a large percentage of those afflicted are already married and there are some who are planning to marry. You should imagine what it means if a HIV positive husband has two wives and is planning to add two,” Modu Aji Jumbam, the permanent secretary in the ministry observed.

We also hope to bring together people who are already HIV/AIDS positive out of their agony so that they can live a happy life by taking the anti retroviral drugs which are now available,” he added.

Though many people are not sure of the workability of the new method especially in villages where the idea regarding the disease is still strange, Modu Jumbam said the plan was like domesticating the national plan on fighting the scourge.

He also allays the fear that some notorious people would go to some far places and get married. “In Islam it is very difficult for one to get a wife without introducing his family”, the permanent secretary who sounded very optimistic said.

He said the campaign by the ministry would also include people that were already married to go for the test and ascertain their status so as to ensure that all the children they would have would live a fulfilling life.

Jumbam equally said the decision was to make it possible for the people in the state to know their HIV/AIDS status with ease because the HIV screening centres were built in the nerve centres of the three senatorial districts of the state so that it would be easier for people in remote settlements to have access to the facilities.

Going by records in health centres and conviction of some people that are directly affected, the scourge has already ravaged many families.

However, the campaign for the mandatory test came to the fore during a recent interactive session in Damaturu between the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development Hajiya Salamatu Hussaini Sulaiman and some Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and vulnerable groups.

Tagged “operation show me your certificate before marriage”, the move was to prevent further spread of HIV/AIDS among the Muslim communities in Yobe State.

Alhaji Modu Jumbam who spoke at the event noted that members of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in the state, especially those who go to churches for their marriage had adopted such measures since 2000.

The permanent secretary said government was to partner with all religious and traditional rulers on how to fully implement the new formula of preventing HIV/AIDS.

This according to him would include “sensitisation and enlightenment of people on the dangers of marriages among couples without HIV/AIDS tests.”

He said some Islamic preachers had been dispatched to various parts of the state in order to enlighten the people.

He lamented that despite measures taken against the spread of the virus, “people continue to contract marriages thereby threatening the lives of many women and children who become widows and orphans.”

Jumbam said the ministry of religious affairs had concluded plans to conduct census of HIV/AIDS widows and orphans in order to find ways of alleviating their plights.

Jumbam added that the initiative had also started working because of the involvement of many people. “In this part of the country, you find an emir in every big community who has under him, many people like Hakimai or Ajiya (district heads); Lawanai (village heads) and Bulama (ward head) and then Imams of mosques whose consent must be sought for before any marriage is contracted,” he said.

During the interactive session, dozens of women who are victims or directly affected by the negative impacts of HIV and AIDS expressed satisfaction with the new invention.

Lami Musa who claimed to be HIV positive said her husband died and left her with two orphans but she is now living a happy life. “Recently I was linked up with one man who is also HIV positive, we are planning to get married in the nearest future”, she said.

Hajiya Farida Mamudo, the coordinator of the Yobe State Action Committee on AIDS (YOSACA) said her agency was tirelessly working with line ministries towards reducing the prevalence of HIV/AIDS.

At present, there are about 29 different NGO’s based in Yobe State who are working on different projects towards addressing issues relating to HIV and AIDS.

“Our intention is to bring all of them very close to us so that we can be working together in order to ensure that we have a healthy society,” Modu Jumbam, the permanent secretary added.